Euphoria: Complete Seasons 1 and 2 - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

Euphoria: Complete Seasons 1 and 2



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:




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Movie
Back in 2019 Euphoria was all the rave online. It was one of HBO’s biggest smash hits, won several Emmys, and skyrocketed Zendaya into a different realm of acting instead of just being “MJ” from the new Spiderman flicks. Based off an Israeli show of the same name, It deals with a drug addicted youth named Rue (Zendaya) returning home from rehab and having to adapt to living back in the “real” world once more. Season 2 was delayed over 2 years due to Covid 19, and even though it’s been a massive HBO hit, the series 3rd season is still in limbo (HBO claims not to have canceled it, but many others have leaked that the series has been put on the back burner, so who knows what’s really up until it’s officially canceled or renewed).

Being that I never watched the show on HBO max, I had to binge watch the full 2 seasons at once on DVD and the results were….interesting. The series is VERY dark and gritty, dealing with some incredibly heavy subjects. Rue comes home from rehab and she very seriously has NO desire to stay sober. All she has to do is pass her routine drug tests, party it up a little and get as high as she wants when no one is looking. However, she finds solace in a trangender girl by the name of Jules (Hunter Schafer) who is suffering a great deal of pain on her own. The two become friends, bonding over their desire to use illicit substances to escape the pain in life.

The show alternates between Rue and Jules as well as several other characters in the show with their own set of messed up issues. Lexi has her own issues as the “cool” kid, Maddy her own. Then comes Natre Jacobs as the hunky jock with some secrets that he’s having to work through, and season two really puts Fezco (Angus Cloud) front and center. If I had to put my finger on the pulse of the show, it’s a series about dealing with pain in High School and beyond. The show can be arduously painful, especially with Rue and her constant struggles to remain sober (when she finally decides to) as well as the tendrils that constantly try to pull her back into her old life style.

The show has won over 8 Emmy’s for the performances, and that is for a very good reason. The actors are totally giving it their all, and making the audience feel like they’re literally touching the raw and pulsating nerves of the characters in the show. It’s visceral, painful, and incredibly well done. However, there’s also a problem that I ran into. It’s just not enjoyable. On a small scale the series does deliver some very powerful moments, but after a while it just becomes banal and depressing to the point where I honestly didn’t want to continue watching it anymore. On one hand I honestly loved the performances, but on the other hand I couldn’t enjoy what I was watching. There seems to be no redemption, no real hope, but rather a constant painful struggle. While I understand that life can be that many ways, I just had a hard time to want to continue the show, which is completely a personal issue I might add, and others may find it completely different for them.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Euphoria: Complete Seasons 1 and 2 comes to DVD spread across 5 discs (all stacked on one single stackpack spindle in the case, wasn’t wild about that) and looks, well, ok on DVD. I know DVD is not going to look super awesome on a 4K setup, and the show has some very unique aesthetics, but it was REALLY soft and goopy looking. Digital noise comes and goes in rave scenes, or when Rue is sitting in a fort doing drugs etc, but overall clarity is just very milky and soft. I couldn’t notice a ton of artifacting outside of the typical MPEG2 micro blocking, but it’s just soooooooooooo soft and mushy looking. When you’re indoors with dark lighting it’s even worse. It’s got some solid neon colors going on, with some bright primary splashes out in the daylight, but at the end of the day the dis is just “good enough” as it barely tops out at 3.5 mbps in high spots.










Audio:

The audio fares much the same fate. 384 kbps Dolby Digital lossy 5.1 is good enough for the dramatic track, but it’s never super duper awesome. Most of the time the characters are simply quietly talking to each other, or having a whisper of the score come through, but there are parties, and a few boisterous and angry arguments that pop it over the top. But other than that this is a very front heavy dialog centric track that doesn’t need a whole lot going on. The 384 kbps is usually more than fine for this type of mix, but every once in a while It feels a bit thin







Extras:

• Euphoria in Conversation: Zendaya and Sam Levinson
• Storyboard to Scene
• Euphoria Scene Breakdown
• Euphoria Unfiltered: Zendaya
• Enter Euphoria Part 1: Rue
• Enter Euphoria Part 2: Jules
• Euphoria: The Craft
• Costumes of Euphoria
• Enter Euphoria
• Euphoria: Set Tour with Sydney Sweeney

Final Score: ​

Euphoria is an interesting show with excellent performances by Zendaya and Hunter Schafer, but ultimately a show that I just couldn’t enjoy. Coming from a family who has suffered losses from drug abuse by members, it hit really close to home, but also feels contrived and rather banal too. I could appreciate the effort, the performances and the lengths they went to in order to show the horrific toll of people living like this, but I sadly couldn’t not get into the series and enjoy it. Be warned that it’s an R rated HBO show (or at least R category since it’s technically NR) so it can have a few racy spots, but it’s also not created to titillate or be used indiscriminately either. At the end of the day I like what they did, but didn’t LIKE watching it. Interesting show that has a rather wonky looking DVD encode, so if you’re a fan of the series you might want to collect it, otherwise I’d suggest checking it out streaming on HBO Max to see if it’s up to your tastes.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Angus Cloud
Created by: Sam Levinson
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG 2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Hbo/Warner
Rated: NR
Runtime: 1032 Minutes
DVD Release Date: November 1st 2022

Recommendation: Interesting Watch

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I heard about this and since I don't have HBO Max, was not able to check it out.

I am curious to see this series so will check it out.

Sounds like it is similar to 13 Reasons Why and possibly Degrassi: The Next Generation